Juche

Han Tong Song
President, Korea University

Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism is an integrated system of the idea, theory and method of Juche authored by President Kim Il Sung and systematized by Leader Kim Jong Il, and the DPRK’s guiding ideology that is further developed consistently by General Secretary Kim Jong Un.

It can be said that Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism is the totality of the history of revolutionary activities of President Kim Il Sung, Leader Kim Jong Il and General Secretary Kim Jong Un.

President Kim Il Sung said.

“I made public in The Path of the Korean Revolution the idea and standpoint I had perceived in my days of struggle and elaborated in prison.

This has become the line of our revolution and its guiding idea.

We can say that the content of the treatise was based entirely on the Juche idea.

Since then the idea has been steadily developed and enriched through the various stages of the revolution, including the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, and through a difficult and complicated practical struggle and it has become a philosophical idea in which ideas, theories and methods have been brought together as an integral whole as we now see it.”

As recollected by the President, the starting points of the Juche idea were provided in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.

In that period, the President criticized that the communists and nationalists who were allegedly engaged in the national-liberation movement in Korea divorced from the masses and were engrossed in the scramble for hegemony and empty talks. The President insisted that masters of the revolution are the masses of the people and that, when one goes among them to educate and mobilize them, one will be able to register victory in the revolution. The President also criticized flunkeyism and dogmatism that intended to imitate mechanically the established theories and experiences of other countries while depending on external forces and insisted that all problems arising in the Korean revolution should be solved by the efforts of the Korean people and in an independent manner to suit the specific conditions in Korea.

These are the starting points of the Juche idea and clarifying the starting points was a historic declaration implying the founding of the Juche idea.

The President clarified that the Juche idea means, in a nutshell, that the masters of the revolution and construction are the popular masses and they have the strength to accelerate the revolution and construction and that the Juche idea is based on the principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything.

The Juche idea was created by the President who opened the path of the arduous Korean revolution in its van while solving the urgent problems arising in the revolutionary practice.

As said by the President, it was Leader Kim Jong Il who systematized, developed and enriched the Juche idea into a philosophical thought.

Leader Kim Jong Il’s activities of systematizing the Juche idea philosophically began in the mid-1960s.

During the period of three years from 1966 to 1969, the Leader conducted theoretical activities to comprehensively study and analyze the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin and reappraise the history of Marxist revolutionary ideas. Reviewing the then course of reappraisal, the Leader said that he could affirm with sufficient arguments that no idea but the revolutionary idea of the President could correctly lead the revolution and construction in Korea.

Soon after he was elected the only successor to the President at the 8^th Plenary Meeting of the 5^th Central Committee of the WPK held in February 1974, the Leader formulated Kimilsungism as the integrated system of ideas, theory and method of Juche in his conclusion made at the 3^rd Conference of Ideological Workers of the WPK.

The three systems of idea, theory and method of Juche are the essential compositions in the idea of realizing the popular masses’ independence.

The Juche idea is the world outlook whose mission is to light up the road of shaping man’s destiny with man at the center of philosophical consideration. The Juche-oriented theory of revolution is the revolutionary theory, strategy and tactics of several stages and fields of realizing the popular masses’ independence. The Juche-oriented method of leadership is a leadership system and a working method and style to lead the popular masses to the revolution and construction by enhancing their position and role. Only when the man-centered world outlook, strategy and tactics of realizing the independence on the basis of the world outlook, and the methodology of work with the masses are systematized into one, can it be possible to establish as a guiding ideology of revolutionary practice to realize the masses’ independence.

In his treatise On the Juche Idea sent to the National Seminar on the Juche Idea held in March 1982 to commemorate the 70^th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung, the Leader systematized the Juche idea as the man-centered philosophical principle, socio-historical principles and guiding principles. In the works On Some Problems of Education in the Juche Idea made public in July 1986, The Juche Philosophy Is an Original Revolutionary Philosophy in July 1996 and others the Leader systematized the Juche philosophy as an integrated whole of the man-centered philosophical world outlook, socio-historical outlook, outlook on the revolution and life, and developed in depth their principles and contents.

Such original ideas and theories that reached a new phase thanks to Leader Kim Jong Il as the Juche-oriented theories on party building, ideology, single-hearted unity, building a powerful socialist country and Songun politics further enriched the idea, theory and method of Juche and demonstrated their validity and viability in the practice of building socialism in the DPRK.

Thanks to the achievement of the Leader who developed and enriched Kimilsungism as required by the times and the developing revolution, the Party members and people in the DPRK called the ideas of the President and the Leader Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism and recognized it as the guiding ideology of the WPK from long time ago.

However Leader Kim Jong Il sternly forbade his name from being associated with the guiding ideology of the Party, saying that nothing would be seen other than Kimilsungism , no matter to what extent one delved into Kimjongilism.

General Secretary Kim Jong Un formulated the President’s and the Leader’s revolutionary ideas as Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism .

Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism is now further developed consistently by the General Secretary. What is important here is that he clarified that Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism is, in essence, the people-first principle.

The people-first principle is a political ideal that puts forward the popular masses as the masters of the revolution and construction, relies on them and makes selfless, devoted efforts for the good of them. It is the basic mode of socialist politics in the DPRK. It is the embodiment of the Juche-oriented revolutionary philosophy that regards the people as the most valuable and powerful beings in the world. It also reflects the steadfast standpoint of the Party and the DPRK government to value the people most and realize their demands and interests with sure.

Saying that it is the DPRK’s true picture that the Party and the state make selfless, devoted efforts for the good of the people and the latter entrust their destiny and future to the former, the General Secretary appealed to channel greater efforts into applying the people-first principle with the advance of socialist construction and give fuller play to superiority peculiar to the DPRK-style socialism that no one can imitate.

The unique ideas and theories of the General Secretary including the people-first principle, theory on the comprehensive development of socialist construction, our-state-first principle and the theory on the increase of the driving force of the revolution not only further develop Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism but serve as a practical programme, a banner that leads the people to translate their ideal and desire into reality in the DPRK which entered the period of a new great upsurge, the overall development of socialist construction.